MyFitnessPal [Android App Review]

One of the hardest pieces to the fitness puzzle is eating healthy, and paying attention to what you are consuming on a daily basis. While many of us think what we are eating isn't all that bad for you, most of the time we are completely wrong unfortunately. Today's society makes it so easy to grab a burger on the go, eat a chocolate bar in place of a lunch, and not only is it easier but it is also cheaper. Since many of us don't know how many calories are in the average meal or any of the other nutritional facts we look to applications to help keep us informed, and that is where MyFitnessPal comes into play.

Taking control of what you eat is extremely important, and unfortunately if it is something that requires to much time it is something you are not likely to do. After downloading MyFitnessPal an account needs to be created with some basic personal information such as your height, weight, and gender. This information is very important, and you will want to input accurate information in, as this will actually help create your daily goals. After you enter the basic information it will ask how active you are on a daily basis, whether you have a desk job or an active job, and then it will also ask whether you wish to maintain, lose or gain weight.

After the account is created, and all the accurate information has been entered the application will launch and you will be able to see you daily calorie goal. Each meal that is entered will deduct from the daily calorie goal, and the meals are stored in a daily journal. From the main screen of the application you can view your daily journal, add your food entry, weigh in, view your weekly history, and more.

MyFitnessPal has a huge food database, containing over one million different foods which makes finding what you are consuming an easy task. Each day is broken down by meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks so you can keep an accurate tab on your food consumption for the day and what you ate as each full meal.

When adding a meal there are two options -- the food can be searched by name or if there is a barcode on the box it can be scanned. After searching or scanning the application will search the huge database and pull the results, showing you the calories in one serving. All that needs to be done from here is to ensure that the serving size is correct, and then adding the foods will deduct that amount of calories from your daily amount.

In addition to adding your calories consumed, the application also has the ability to monitor daily activities, so if you go out for a run for 30 minutes, or do an hour of yoga, that is entered as well. Once entered your calorie count will again be adjusted to reflect the new available amount of calories that are able to be consumed.

At the end of the day there is an option to complete your logging for that day, and once the days log has been completed the application will show you a projected five week weight. This weight will be an approximation based on what you ate and how much you exercised on that particular day, and if you were to replicate that each day going forward. This can definitely be some great motivation to keep you working towards your goal.

Keep in mind, not everyone needs to lose weight to be healthy, some people want to maintain their weight, and others want to put on a few pounds. Regardless of which of these categories you fall into, MyFitnessPal is a must have application that will help you along the way.

I only started using MyFitnessPal 2 weeks ago. But so far I have lost 4 pounds. I love how most menu items are already loaded from chain restaurants. And the app can read bar codes from common grocery products to make data entry even easier.

Today was my 185th consecutive day logging into MFP. I lost 62 lbs. in my first 150 days and have been maintaining ever since. This app literally saved my life, as I was a walking heart attack waiting for the bell to go off. LOVE IT!

Absolutely awesome app! Started using it with the goal of losing about 20 pounds to get back down to my long distance running weight. I've already lost 14 of those 20 pounds in 5 weeks! It has me eating better food in general to make the calories count. The runs are getting way easier and faster.

The app itself has a fantastic UI and the database is huge making it convenient to enter meals in. The cloud syncing is the best part because i can enter and view on my Nexus, iPad, or desktop. No excuses! I recommend it to anyone!

I've used it about 6 months. Now I don't want to be with out it. I Highly recommended it.

The data base is huge. Sometimes I think it was crowed sourced. Generally it is accurate but watch out for calories that look to good to be true, especially when a similar item is three times higher.

On your desktop browser, click the major tab: Food, minor tab: Settings... "You can change the names of the meals used in your food diary. For example, to track your eating habits by time, you could change your meal names to "9AM to 11AM", "11AM to 1PM", etc." Handy!

This app & desktop URL fits nicely with my weight management program http://www.hmrprogram.com/ ; where I had lost OVER 100 pounds!

Con: I do not like the way the phone app calculates REMAINING Calories. Displayed are: Goal Calories, Food Calories, Exercise Calories, Net Calories, REMAINING Calories. R=G-N (N=F-E). This falsely allows you to eat your Physical Activity calories; which I have learned is a bad thing to do. Just because you did a little more Exercise, should not allow you to eat more, IMHO.

Still, a handy, useful, productive app. Very simple to use once you set it up and learn all the cool tricks. Get It, Use It!

I'll have to give this a try. I'm by no means fat nor skinny. I dropped 25lbs on my own with hard exercising and "eating right" but to drop that final 10 lbs I want to slice I'm having problems and I'm thinking this may be the answer. Thanks for the link. :)

Excellent app! Syncs online so I enter in browser on laptop, tablet app and phone on the go and it refreshes quickly. I rarely come across food that isn't already in database and easy to look online and add foods that aren't. Meals option is a great feature since I eat some of the same things for breakfast every day and coffee/creamer is as easy as one click add. Agree with other posts, exercise reimbursement of calories a bit excessive. I actually made an entry minutes before reading this. Crazy how many calories you intake if you don't pay attention!

I love this application, I have been using it for more than six months and I have lost 55 lbs and my wife 25.
The most important of this application is that help you to learn what to eat, what is good for you and what doesn't.
Very recommended!

How much did AC get paid for this "review"? Not even a single mention that this app has ads in it. Ads that you can not get rid of, as there is no paid version. Then to scroll down to the comments. Every single person commenting lost large amounts of weight and then starred every comment to three as well. Come on AC how dumb do you think your readers are?

There are better apps than this in the Market, ones with no forced ads in them.

Who cares about the ads? It's the same as the website, the service is free, powered by ads. I lost a lot of weight because I'm fat. There are AD free calorie counters in the market, but none are as good as my fitness pal.

What you didn't know probably was that there is a device called a "Fitbit Ultra Tracker" which tracks your steps, monitors your sleep, and syncs with its own website wirelessly near its base. That data can sync with MyFitnessPal which tracks the food better than that devices native app. My coworker has been using it a month and just noticing some of the stuff he ate the first week, he curved his eating habits and is down 10lbs.

I had the same problem with MapMyFitness + (the plus means I paid for it). They still have ads. Even though I like the app better than Endomondo Pro I won't use an app that has ads (unless it is the non-paid version that I am trying to decide whether to use/buy it or not. They need a non-ads version (by the way MapMyFitness has calorie tracker built in).

I don't believe there are better apps anywhere,although I haven't tried others,because I haven't had to.I am 48 years old,I am 5'11,and was 293 lbs,when I started my fitness pal.I was a 190 lb weightlifter in highschool,but as you age,even if you have an active lifestyle,your metabolism slows.you put on a couple of pounds each year,even though your eating habits didn't change.you don't even notice it happening,if you do,you think oh well,im now an old,fat man.I had this in my mind,until a good friend of mine at work told me"your really getting heavy,you have to do something.I found my fitness pal,and here I am 7 months later,weighing in at 216lbs.my goal was 240,but when I got there,I decided to shoot for high school weight.im almost there,I am 216 lbs today,and will be at 205 within 10 weeks.anybody who knocks my fitness pal is either not giving it enough time or doesn't have the willpower to cut back their calories.

I consider the 77 lbs. That I've lost in the last 6 months very close to being a miracle.I have people I don't even know at work asking me how I lost all the weight,and it really feels good to hear that.I've had several of my bosses ask me what im doing to lose all the weight.if you people out there are worried about something as stupid as ads,if I were you,I would keep my original goal of weightloss in mind,because if I was nitpicking about ads,id be 300 lbs by now instead of 216.

The android phone app is so easy.just scan your barcodes for your 3 meals,and snacks.Its all second nature now,I know I can have 300 to 500 calories per meal depending on how hungry I am,and what snacks I want later on.I have lost my 77lbs in the last 6 months totally without any exercise besides what I get at work,which hasn't changed at all. I just bought an exercise bike,which should help me get to my goal weight a little faster.I was in size 48 pants,now in 40.thank you, my fitness pal,your a lifesaver.